| Mission Mangal | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Jagan Shakti |
| Written by |
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| Story by | Jagan Shakti |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Ravi Varman |
| Edited by | Chandan Arora |
| Music by | Score: Amit Trivedi Songs: Amit Trivedi Tanishk Bagchi |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Fox Star Studios |
Release date |
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Running time | 127 minutes[2] |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
| Budget | ₹32crore[3] |
| Box office | ₹290.59 crore[4][5] |
Mission Mangal (transl. MissionMars) is a 2019 Indiandrama film directed by Jagan Shakti and produced by Cape of Good Films, Hope Productions,Fox Star Studios, Aruna Bhatia and Anil Naidu.[2] Loosely based on the life of scientists at theIndian Space Research Organisation who contributed to India's first interplanetary expeditionMars Orbiter Mission, it stars anensemble cast ofAkshay Kumar,Vidya Balan,Sonakshi Sinha,Taapsee Pannu,Nithya Menen(in her Hindi debut),Kirti Kulhari,Sharman Joshi in lead roles alongsideH. G. Dattatreya,Vikram Gokhale,Dalip Tahil,Sanjay Kapoor andMohammed Zeeshan Ayyub amongst others in supporting roles.[1]
Shakti, an associate director on Kumar's 2018 filmPad Man,pitched the script to him, andprincipal photography commenced in November 2018.
Mission Mangal was theatrically released on 15 August 2019, India'sIndependence Day. It received positive reviews from critics and earned₹291.59crore worldwide, becoming a major commercial success. At the65th Filmfare Awards,Mission Mangal received 6 nominations, includingBest Film,Best Director (Shakti) andBest Actress (Balan). The film was digitally released on theOTT platformDisney+ Hotstar on 10 October 2019.[6][7]
Across the landscapes ofBengaluru,India, atISRO, after the failed launch ofGSLV-F06 on 25 December 2010, due to a miscalculation by Project Director Tara Shinde (Vidya Balan), Rakesh Dhawan[a] (Akshay Kumar), a fellow scientist working with her, takes the blame for the mistake. As a result, he is relocated to work onMangalyaan (Mars-craft) as punishment, where Tara joins him out of guilt. The new GSLV missions are given to Rupert Desai (Dalip Tahil), an ex-NASA scientist of Indian origin. The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is thought of as an impossible mission by his coworkers due to its aim of reachingMars with its tight budget.
Rakesh learns that the MOM cannot take off on thePSLV since the available technology has a payload of only 1500 kg and not enough fuel to fire the rocket to be carried to a distance of almost 55 millionkilometres.GSLV, if it had succeeded, could have taken the satellite to Mars as it had a payload of 2300 kg. However, recent significant failures of GSLV have jeopardised the planned future missions.
Tara is also caught up at home between constant feuds between her husband Sunil and her son Dilip, the latter showing an interest in his namesakeA. R. Rahman andIslam. Dilip has another interest in the Mars Mission. One day, when Tara has to makepooris and runs out ofgas, she plans to cook the rest with the flame off. This sparks an idea on using minimal fuel on the PSLV vehicle, to reach Mars. With reluctance, opposing Rupert assigns a junior team to Rakesh and Tara.
The junior scientists' team comprises: Eka Gandhi (Sonakshi Sinha), a propulsion control expert, who is looking for any chance to get away to NASA; Neha Siddiqui (Kirti Kulhari), a spacecraft autonomy designer, who is struggling with rejection as a result of her intercommunal background despite her divorce while trying hard to find a house; Kritika Aggarwal (Taapsee Pannu), a navigation expert who is also a devoted wife to her army husband Rishi (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub), while trying hard to get a driving license; Varsha Pillai (Nithya Menen), the satellite designer and payload expert, who faces her mother-in-law's taunts for being unable to conceive a child; Parmeshwar Joshi (Sharman Joshi), the payload expert, who relies more on the religious priest and his advice but subsequently develops a romantic interest in Eka; and Ananth Iyengar (H. G. Dattatreya), the team's structural engineer, who is trying to complete his pilgrimage toTirumala with his wife.
After the announcement of India's secondMoon mission,Chandrayaan-2, the mission's budget is cut by 50%; in between the tight schedule and minuscule budget, Tara and Rakesh continue to work on their MOM project by making several compromises, even as Kritika abruptly abandons her duties without informing the duo upon learning that Rishi has been severely wounded in action. Tara and Rakesh realise that the rest of the junior scientists working on the project have low morale and motivation to make this mission happen, leading to the team slowing down. Tara soon realises that in order to meet their budget and schedule, she must make the team members change their attitudes, and motivate them to make their dream jobs into a reality. An attempt on her part to pacify her worried husband, Sunil by tracing their daughter Anya, who hasn't arrived home yet, to anight club, eventually culminates in Sunil warming up to the party environment as he throws a comment about nostalgia. This strikes an idea in Tara's head, and the next day, she successfully motivates the team members by reminding them of their childhood passion for science, and they put all their hardwork and energy into resolving the issues with the mission to make it happen. Meanwhile, even as Kritika returns on being reminded by Rishi that she has a duty towards her country too, just like him, Varsha happens to be pregnant and soon delivers a child, for whom the team makes arrangements at the office itself, while Neha is warmly taken in by Ananth and his wife into their house (where Ananth helps her move on with her troubled past as a wife).
The MOM satellite is finally launched on PSLV on 5 November 2013 (after an 8-day delay due to weather), and is named Mangalyaan (Sanskrit:Mars-Craft) and is successfully inserted intoEarth's orbit. Rakesh and his team celebrate the successful launch. However, while doing the sixth orbit-raising manoeuvre, the jets fail to launch, pushing the mission six days behind. Rupert mocks the team, while Tara continues to keep hope that something will happen. A couple months later, on the way to Mars, the satellite is hit by a solar radiation wave, which heavily damages its communication systems. When the team manages to regain communications, they realise that the solar radiation had increased the speed of the satellite and pushed it further, making up the six day gap they had incurred while doing the orbital manoeuvres withEarth. After spending a 298-day transit to Mars, MOM satellite is inserted intoMars orbit on 24 September 2014, makingIndia the 4th country in the world to do so and the first country to do it in the first attempt.
On 5 November 2018, to coincide with 5 November 2013, the day theMars Orbiter Mission was launched,Mission Mangal was announced. Principal photography for the film began later in mid-November.[8][9] In early February, Pannu finished her schedule of shooting.[10] Shakti initially hadMohanlal andSridevi in mind for the roles played byAkshay Kumar andVidya Balan. Shakti pitched the idea to Kumar while working as an associate director toR. Balki in Kumar'sPad Man.[11]
In November 2018, a copyright infringement lawsuit was filed against the makers of the film by the filmmakerRadha Bharadwaj.[12]
| Mission Mangal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by | |||||
| Released | 15 August 2019[13] | ||||
| Recorded | 2018–2019 | ||||
| Studio | A T Studios | ||||
| Genre | Feature film soundtrack | ||||
| Length | 10:32 | ||||
| Language | Hindi | ||||
| Label | Zee Music Company | ||||
| Producer | Amit Trivedi | ||||
| |||||
The music of the film is composed byAmit Trivedi while the lyrics are penned byAmitabh Bhattacharya.
Tanishk Bagchi was roped in as a guest composer and wrote and composed a promotional song, "Tota Udd".
| No. | Title | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Dil Mein Mars Hai" | Benny Dayal,Vibha Saraf | 3:05 |
| 2. | "Shaabaashiyaan" | Shilpa Rao, Anand Bhaskar, Abhijeet Srivastava | 4:40 |
| 3. | "Tota Udd" (Music and Lyrics:Tanishk Bagchi) | Raja Hasan, Romi | 2:47 |
| Total length: | 10:32 | ||
The film was released in India on 15 August 2019 on the occasion ofIndian Independence Day.[14]
Mission Mangal received generally positive reviews from critics.[15]Rajeev Masand of News 18 gave the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and said, "Ultimately, Mission Mangal is enjoyable and entertaining. Even the jingoism doesn’t feel entirely out of place. Director Jagan Shakti delivers a space movie that lifts off and frequently soars."[16] Raja Sen ofHindustan Times gave the film only 2 out of 5 stars and said, "The facts are stupendous, but director Jagan Shakti decides to go fast and fictional, creating an underdog story that — while often likeable — plays out like a fable."[17]
On its first day of release,Mission Mangal earned₹29.16 crore nett in India to become the third highest-opening for a Bollywood film in 2019, and Kumar's highest opening ever.[18] It recorded collections of₹16.75-17 crore on the second day, outperforming in the regions ofMumbai,Mysore andKolkata.[3][19] On its third day of release, a Saturday, the film collected₹23.5 crore nett.[20] It earned₹27.5 crore nett on Sunday, marking the highest earning for a Bollywood film in 2019 on a single day.[21] The following day, it showed a drop of 50 percent from Friday's earnings to collect₹8.5-8.75 crore nett.[22]
As of 12 October 2019[update], with a gross of₹238.80 crore in India and₹51.79 crore overseas, the film had earned₹290.59 crore worldwide and was the8th highest grosssing Bollywood movie of 2019.[4][5]
The film was a quickie made in no time and shot for around 30 days and at a production cost of just 32 crore (without Akshay Kumar and P&A)...
